Over the past few years, the Internet has become a major source of information and a common, world-wide means of communication and commerce. The rapid expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW) has made the Internet a primary means by which many businesses provide product information and advertising, and the number of companies conducting business over the Internet is growing. In addition to business uses, the information resources and entertainment available through the WWW are causing an ever increasing number of households to purchase computer equipment, and establish accounts giving them access to the Internet. With the increasing availability of high-speed access, and low-cost devices designed specifically to provide Internet access, the Internet promises to become the primary communications medium of the next decade.
Gaining access to the Internet is relatively simple for individual users. All that is needed at present is a personal computer equipped with a modem, a telephone line, and a dial-up account with any one of a large number of Internet service providers (ISPs). Most of the required software setup is handled automatically, so the user need not have any great skill with computers or networks. At present, dial-up accounts are inexpensive, typically requiring a modest monthly fee for "unlimited" access to the Internet. The speed of the connection to the Internet depends on the speed of the modem being used for the connection, and is currently less than 56,000 bits per second. Setups of this type typically require a separate modem, telephone line, and ISP account for each machine which has simultaneous access to the Internet.
Faster, more expensive options are available to businesses. A business with a need to have a continuous high-speed link to the Internet, or to have multiple computers connected simultaneously, may lease a high-speed connection through an ISP. The speed and cost of such a connection varies with the type of connection (leased line, ISDN, frame relay, T1, T3), and presently ranges from approximately 128,000 bits per second to many millions of bits per second, at a cost ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per month. Continuous high-speed connections are also difficult to set up, typically requiring the services of a network professional to establish the connection, and to provide maintenance when there are problems.
At present, there are few good Internet access solutions available for small businesses or individuals with three or four computers which need occasional access to the Internet. A high-speed continuous connection is much more than is needed, and is far too costly. A typical dial-up connection provides Internet access to only one machine at a time. Connecting four computers to the Internet via dial-up connections would require four separate phone lines, and four separate dial-up accounts, possibly making the cost of such a solution too expensive.
For small office or home office ("SOHO") applications where a local area network (LAN) already exists, there are currently several possible ways of connecting the LAN to the Internet. For example, one machine can be connected to the Internet through a dial-up connection, and can run a "proxy server" to provide Internet access to other machines on the LAN. A proxy server is software which manages Internet traffic on the LAN by re-routing Internet traffic to and from the machines on the LAN. This permits a single Internet connection to be used by several computers on a LAN, and may also provide performance enhancement and security, by caching frequently accessed information, and by monitoring the information going to and from the Internet, and blocking any undesirable communications. Proxy server software is widely used, and numerous commercial, shareware, and freeware proxy servers are available for a variety of computers and operating systems.
Although they are readily available, LANs and proxy servers are not easy to set up. First, it is necessary to connect all of the computers to a local area network. This requires that each computer be provided with the necessary hardware to connect it to a network, and that the necessary software to provide network access be installed and configured on each computer. The computers must then be connected to each other, typically through a network "hub", which retransmits network traffic received from any one of the computers to all of the others which are connected to the hub. Finally, the proxy server software must be installed and configured on the computer having a dial-up connection to the Internet, and all of the other computers on the LAN must be configured to send their Internet traffic through the proxy server. All of these steps require knowledge of computers and networks, and typically must be performed by a skilled technician.
In response to the difficulties associated with setting up and configuring proxy server software, and the fact that running the proxy server software places a considerable demand on the computational resources of the computer which is running it, several companies now offer stand-alone devices which plug into a LAN to provide Internet and modem access to the computers on the LAN. For example, Intel Corporation, of Santa Clara, Calif., offers a stand-alone device called the "InBusiness Internet Station," which incorporates a processor running a pre-configured proxy server, a network connection, and interface circuitry for connecting up to three modems to the device, permitting up to 12 computers to be connected to the Internet through a single dial-up account. Ramp Networks Corporation, of Santa Clara, Calif., offers a similar product, called the "WebRamp M3," which integrates a processor running a proxy server, a network interface, a four-port network hub, and ports for connecting up to three modems into a single stand-alone device. Similar stand-alone network modem nodes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,356, to Parameswaran Nair et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,365, to Bhat et al., both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
These stand-alone devices for connecting a LAN to the Internet still have disadvantages that make them unsuitable for use in the SOHO market. First, because they contain most of the essential components of a computer system (i.e. processor, memory, I/O slots or ports, network interface hardware, case, power supply), the stand-alone devices tend to be expensive. Currently, a small business or home user can expect to pay between $400 and $600 for such a device plus the cost of the modems which will be attached (currently, approximately $100-$200 per modem). Additionally, since these devices typically plug into a LAN, it is necessary for the user of the device to set up and configure a LAN, requiring the installation and configuration of numerous network interface cards, and possibly a network hub. The currently available devices also do not typically include a modem. Thus, it is necessary to select, install, and configure numerous network cards, a hub, and one or more modems to use one of these "simple" stand-alone Internet access devices. Such solutions may be far too complex for the typical SOHO user.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide a low-cost integrated solution to connect several computers to the Internet through a single dial-up ISP account.
It would further be desirable to provide a device that permits several computers to use a single connection to the Internet, and which provides simple setup and configuration.